On the Nature of Things

Introduction

On the Nature of Things is a work of philosophy and science written as a poem. Lucretius tells his reader that the universe consists of countless atoms moving, colliding and combining in an infinite void; nothing comes from nothing and nothing returns to nothing; the gods do not intervene in the world, the soul dissolves with the body, and so death is nothing to us. The poem goes on to describe the development of living things, the origins of human civilization, the causes of thunder and earthquakes, and the terrible plague of Athens. It is both a masterpiece of Latin literature and one of the fullest statements of ancient scientific thought.